A Progressive Occupation?

The Gallieni-Lyautey Method and Colonial Pacification in Tonkin and Madagascar, 1885-1900

Michael P.M. Finch

Sheds new light on an aspects of French colonial warfare before the First World War

Focus on the Gallieni-Lyautey method raises broader historical questions about the French army, empire and civil-military relations

Explores the differences between theory and practice in colonial warfare

Offers English-language treatment of the pre-WWI career of Joseph Gallieni (and will, by extension, be of interest to those with an interest in WWI)

Will be of interest to anyone interested the pre-WWII imperial origins of counterinsurgency

A Progressive Occupation?

The Gallieni-Lyautey Method and Colonial Pacification in Tonkin and Madagascar, 1885-1900

Michael P.M. Finch

Description

On the eve of the twentieth century, Joseph Gallieni and Hubert Lyautey claimed to have devised a new approach to the consolidation of colonial acquisitions. Their method emphasized the primacy of political action over military action, called for the replacement of military columns with a 'creeping occupation', and stressed the importance of economic-organisational development in ensuring the lasting stability of newly-acquired imperial possessions, and called for the unification of civil and military powers in the hands of the soldier, who would act as the first administrator of the colony.

This method was the culmination of colonial experiences in Tonkin and Madagascar in the final decades of the nineteenth century. A Progressive Occupation? TheGallieni-Lyautey Method and Colonial Pacification in Tonkin and Madagascar, 1885-1900 places the emergence of the method and Gallieni's own achievements in their proper context. The volume's focus then moves across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar, where Gallieni, combining the roles of Commander-in-Chief and Governor-General, was able to play out his nascent colonial method on a grand scale. Meanwhile, his subordinates - with Lyautey at the forefront - were able to interpret his method in the execution of their missions.

Drawing heavily on French archival sources, Michael Finch sheds new light on colonial conflict and consolidation during the age of European imperial expansion, illustrates the differences, gaps and transgressions that exist between the theory and the practice of
pacification, and raises broader questions about the French army, empire and civil-military relations.

A Progressive Occupation?

The Gallieni-Lyautey Method and Colonial Pacification in Tonkin and Madagascar, 1885-1900

Michael P.M. Finch

Table of Contents

List of Figures and TablesNote on place namesIntroduction1. Colonial Consolidation, Pacification, and Military Practice, 1870-19142. A Method in History and in Theory3. Tonkin 1885 - 1891: pacification without method4. Tonkin 1891 - 1896: the arrival of method5. Madagascar, 1896-1899: the method on a large scaleConclusionTables and FiguresBibliography

A Progressive Occupation?

The Gallieni-Lyautey Method and Colonial Pacification in Tonkin and Madagascar, 1885-1900

Michael P.M. Finch

Author Information

Michael P.M. Finch is a lecturer in the Defence Studies Department, Kings College London at the Joint Services Command and Staff College. He was formerly the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of War at the University of Oxford, and a research associate with the Oxford Programme on the Changing Character of War. He completed his doctoral studies at Pembroke College, University of Oxford, and has taught at the Universities of Birmingham, Newcastle, and Oxford.